


Runner

by 126916912



Series: Deleted 1213659/126916912 Works [7]
Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: M/M, Time Travel, finding each other, fugitive hyunjae, surprise break-up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-27 12:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30122520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/126916912/pseuds/126916912
Summary: Sangyeon’s boyfriend starts running one day
Relationships: Lee Jaehyun | Hyunjae/Lee Sangyeon
Series: Deleted 1213659/126916912 Works [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2216154
Kudos: 2





	Runner

Sangyeon is all for lunch dates at the weekend but he usually prefers the person inviting him on said dates to have an idea of where they might go. In the waterfront square there are enough cuisine options to travel the globe by coasting on their palates alone. But this only means that Jaehyun has stood outside several of the restaurants already and picked apart random ingredients listed in dishes which would put him off dining in the whole restaurant altogether. 

Jaehyun has been wishy-washy since they first met, but Sangyeon supposes he should expect as much from the man who hit on him when sweat was pouring down his face after he had collapsed on a bench after running too hard from the hangover that was gaining on him. Sangyeon had admitted defeat to the hangover and spent the rest of the day counting down the seconds until he could take his next painkiller and hope to keep it down. But giving his number to a guy like Jaehyun had at the time felt like the sort of victory which turned the day into an overall triumph. Right now Sangyeon’s stomach is groaning pathetically and he is regretting the decision to even wheeze in Jaehyun's direction. 

"Is this how you killed your last boyfriend?" Sangyeon asks, swinging their joined hands in a way that he hopes is obnoxious. "You let the poor sod starve to death right outside a restaurant?" 

Jaehyun finally tears his eyes away from the menu to grin at Sangyeon. "Why don't you choose where we go?" 

"You're the picky one."

"Picky?" Jaehyun asks incredulously. "I don't remember pickiness being a problem when I picked you."

Jaehyun tugs Sangyeon closer by the hand and steals a quick peck. His expression is soft. He looks good but unfortunately not edible. 

"Please just choose somewhere. Anywhere."

Jaehyun folds his arms and looks around the waterfront square a few times and weighs up all of the options and strokes his chin in thought. Sangyeon is literally about to digest a hole in his stomach wall. 

"Jaehyun—" 

The rest of Sangyeon’s words are lost as he watches Jaehyun run. He hadn't given any warning or mentioned spotting someone he knows. He had just zipped away. Jaehyun is too wishy-washy, there's no doubt about it. The problem is, Sangyeon jogs to catch up with Jaehyun only to find he has vanished. There aren't many places he could have gone, though it certainly seems like there are infinite restaurants he could have hidden inside. Calls to Jaehyun's phone don't connect and none of the people in the waterfront square who stop for Sangyeon’s questions seem to have seen Jaehyun at all. 

+

Sangyeon would think it poetic, the way Jaehyun had stopped running just for the sake of meeting Sangyeon and had started running almost a year later to leave him, but he is too heartbroken to appreciate it. 

Less poetic is the realisation that he already sort of knew the friends Jaehyun had introduced him to over the course of their relationship. Sangyeon doesn't know any of Jaehyun’s colleagues or even where he works, and worse still Sangyeon doesn't know anything about Jaehyun's family aside from offhand mentions of a sister who might not even be real. 

All Sangyeon has is a useless piece of jewellery, Jaehyun's disconnected phone number, and a few friends who are more mutual than he had first realised. Except when Sangyeon asks anyone about Jaehyun (whether they have seen him lately, whether he is safe because that probably matters more than the disappointment that gets overwhelming sometimes) the answers are all the same. 

"Who is that?" 

Sangyeon would certainly like to know who Jaehyun is seeing as a year of getting comfortable with him has evaporated but the uniform answers are unsettling. But there isn't anything Sangyeon can do if Jaehyun has asked everyone to tell the same lie about never knowing him at all. 

+

Sangyeon runs. He tries to go back to normal and remember the routines he had in life before he needed to work around a whole other person. It is only fair if Jaehyun wants to pretend to have never existed in Sangyeon’s life that Sangyeon helps him out. 

Sangyeon goes on runs in the mornings and evenings because that was what he used to do. He returns home and eats; dinners from the night before carried over to breakfast the morning after. He clears up clutter which accumulates endlessly despite being certain he had already done this before. He might go out to meet a friend in the evening and ease the numbing boredom of the past work day with a few drinks, he returns home and wonders why his flat still feels like a place Jaehyun has just stepped out of despite nothing here actually belonging to Jaehyun. 

Sangyeon hates it. 

As much as Sangyeon doesn't want to admit it, Jaehyun disappearing left a dull ache in his life. Absence shouldn't be enough to make Sangyeon lose track of the days and what time of day it was when he first left on a run. He must be losing sleep, or getting too much of it because he is losing entire days and greeting every moment of other days with an ugly sense of deja vu. He has seen a day full of disasters before his eyes have opened yet he returns home after his morning jog and finds that he can't avoid even the smallest calamity. 

Loneliness and rejection weigh heavily on Sangyeon’s shoulders and the exhaustion from the inconvenience must be what is setting him on edge. 

If losing days and nights is not bad enough, Sangyeon often feels like he is being followed but whether he turns to peer through the diffused night or the soft morning light behind him there is never anyone there. Perhaps Sangyeon needs more sleep but when he lies in bed his brain won't switch off. So he runs. 

Sangyeon knows that getting out of bed in the middle of the night to go for a run is excessive, especially when he struggles to stay awake at work during the day anyway, especially when he sets the children quiet work while he marks books, but he knows that staring at his ceiling all night is equally useless. 

There is a bite to the night air when Sangyeon is outside but it isn't quite enough to freeze the thoughts in his mind. Maybe he is going crazy. Maybe he imagined an entire person. 

He starts running and plotting a potential path that won't take him too long just about jostles his current issues right out of his mind. Except Jaehyun is there, in his head for no reason at all. Sangyeon can't close his eyes and hope the vision fades anytime soon. Jaehyun is just ahead, running down the same street like he has any business being there at all. 

Sangyeon tries to speed up but he can't catch up to the Jaehyun just ahead. Sangyeon opens his mouth, ready to call out one of the insults that have been squatting in his mind, but he feels the pavement drop away from beneath his next stride and he is falling. 

+

Sangyeon feels cold. That fact doesn't surprise him seeing as he is sitting on a metal chair in a square room that could exist in a basement anywhere. It looks a lot like an interrogation room like the ones Sangyeon has seen on the television except the lights in the ceiling are brighter and there is no one-way mirror set into the wall. The box on the left-hand end of the table has several buttons and protrusions and a device that looks like a hand fan sits in a cradle on top of it. The box must be some sort of recording device. There is a security camera above but that is all the visible surveillance here. 

Knowing where exactly 'here' is would be great but Sangyeon isn't holding out too much hope considering the fact he appeared in this space. Sleep deprivation is hitting him too hard. 

Luckily Sangyeon doesn't need to wait alone for too long. A straight-faced duo enters through a door which melts seamlessly into the walls once the room has closed behind them. 

"There is no need to look so tense, Lee Sangyeon, we have just brought you here for some questioning," says one of the pair, black hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail. The words have almost no inflection but that isn't at all settling. 

"Are you police?" Sangyeon asks carefully. He feels oddly scruffy in the clothes he threw on for his midnight run but he might feel the same no matter what he was wearing when faced with the two people opposite wearing ivory, straight pressed suits. 

"We're not police." The answer is short from the one with pale blonde hair falling in waves to their shoulders, and then the two people take their seats across from Sangyeon. Despite being none the wiser, Sangyeon doesn't particularly want to try asking a question again. He needn't wait too long before the person sitting closest to the strange box on the table presses one of the buttons and removes the fan-shaped device from its cradle to pass to their colleague. 

"Investigator A0707 and Investigator A1108 of HTS Department of Anomalies are conducting an interview with detainee Lee Sangyeon with regards to case T7-U11. The time is 00:00:12-1° standard on Day 824 of the LL6 calendar. Investigator A0707 will now begin by asking the detainee to confirm their identity." The same Investigator, presumably A0707 takes a small breath and gestures to Sangyeon. "Please state your name and local date of birth."

Sangyeon shifts in his seat and leans a bit closer to the strange box. The other Investigator, A1108, almost smiles and their fingers flex around the device in their hand, though Sangyeon isn't going to hope for kindness here. He clears his throat lightly. "My name is Lee Sangyeon. I was born 4th November 1996."

A0707, ponytail, nods and folds their hands together on the table. "The detainee has confirmed their identity as Lee Sangyeon. Before commencing questioning, Investigator A1108 will now take a measurement of the detainee's time signature."

A1108 stands to move around the table and slowly pans the device in their hand over Sangyeon from a handspan away. Once A1108 returns to their seat they say, "The time signature reading is R68. We will now begin the interview."

Sangyeon can't imagine what he is supposed to know about anything but the two investigators opposite him don't falter. 

The questions begin easy. What was he doing at the time before he was phased into this neutral zone? Running. Why was he running? Couldn't sleep. Does he run often? Every day, sometimes twice. 

The questions gradually get harder to answer as A0707 and A1108 take turns asking what they need to know. Giving answers isn't difficult in itself but Sangyeon finds himself confused by the things he is being prompted to supply until it all makes sense. 

They want to know about Jaehyun, how they know each other, what the nature of their relationship is, what exactly Sangyeon is doing for Jaehyun by constantly running. 

Sangyeon could laugh if he wasn't so tired of everything. 

"I'm not doing anything for Jaehyun," Sangyeon says. "If anything I am running to forget about him, to clear my mind. He dumped me, just disappeared without a word, and after almost a year together I would have thought he'd give me some warning or say something."

"A year?" A0707 asks. The look the two investigators exchange is a guarded one but Sangyeon doesn't even want to understand it. "What was the exact date that T7-U11 arrived?" 

Sangyeon can't think of a date. "I don't know, I can't remember. It has been around about a year though."

"Are you saying that you have known T7-U11 since last Summer? July? August?" 

Sangyeon can't say yes. He doesn't have a clue when he first met Jaehyun. It might have been the Summer but it could just have easily have been any other season, though Sangyeon can't say he recalls seeing any particularly cold or warm seasons through with Jaehyun. The weather was brisk in the early morning, perhaps later in the morning if it was a weekend and Sangyeon slept in, but it was warm enough to only go out in a T-shirt and shorts. Sangyeon can't even place which day of the week he met Jaehyun. 

"I don't know," Sangyeon admits. It feels too much like being defeated after so many other things which have stacked up against him. 

+

The fact that Sangyeon didn't imagine Jaehyun altogether is not quite as comforting as he would like it to be. Sangyeon has stared up at his ceiling just like he is now, just listening to the steadiness of Jaehyun’s breaths, and knowing that those moments actually occurred should be good. It wasn't all a hallucination, but that doesn't mean anything else makes sense. 

Sangyeon never met Jaehyun a year ago. The investigators from HTS had already locked down a moon cycle, almost a month, since Jaehyun had arrived yet somehow he had left behind a strong enough time signature that he could have been here for a year. That certainly sounds anomalous to Sangyeon. 

"Jaehyun, did we ever actually meet?" Sangyeon asks. He doesn't get an answer of course. He is alone in his bedroom which has always looked the same before and after Jaehyun was around to leave his clothes and his phone charger and and all the stupid little matching trinkets he insisted they both get. 

Sangyeon’s alarm rings. He pulls his duvet over his head but it only muffles the sound slightly. Under the covers he is only at risk of hearing his own breathing. But he can also convince himself that he can hear footsteps walking into the room. The alarm stops and Sangyeon throws off the covers and sits up. He is still alone and he needs to get ready for work. 

+

"Do you believe in ghosts?" Sangyeon asks Haseul. They work together, teachers at the same school, though they didn't talk much more than occasional greetings until Jaehyun wanted to introduce Sangyeon to one of his funny and cool friends who turned out to be the same Haseul he already knew. But Haseul and Jaehyun were probably never friends in the first place. 

Haseul looks thoughtful for a moment, smiles cautiously, and says, "Have you seen a ghost?" 

"Maybe," Sangyeon says. "I feel more like I am chasing a ghost than anything." 

Haseul raises her eyebrows and pushes her lunch aside. She slips the pink post-it out of her lunch box and carefully sticks that to the desk in front of her. Haseul makes her own lunches, boxes them the night before for herself and her girlfriend, but her girlfriend always sneaks a cute note into Haseul's lunch box every day. Once, Jaehyun had promised to do the same for Sangyeon but he never did. 

"Where have you seen this ghost," Haseul asks. 

"Everywhere."

"Do you ever get close to the ghost when you're in a certain place?" 

"I'm not close to the ghost. I only ever catch glimpses," Sangyeon says. He isn't going to mention the night run when the Jaehyun in his mind was projected solidly several strides ahead of him. But the feeling that Jaehyun is home or is about to walk into the room has been enough to make anticipation stagnate in Sangyeon’s stomach. 

"Why are you chasing a ghost in the first place?" 

"I don't know. I just am." 

"Have you thought about stopping?" 

Sangyeon sighs. That is too obvious of a solution. "I can't stop. The ghost wants me to chase it. The ghost comes to my home."

Haseul hums and idly swipes her thumb over the post-it. "I think I would have to keep chasing the ghost until I find it. I would be driven crazy by never knowing what the ghost wanted with me. What do you think? Do you want any help? Maybe I could find someone who knows how to catch ghosts."

Haseul's smile looks almost as though she knows about catching ghosts herself. Sangyeon supposes there is a lot that he doesn't know about her but he feels like asking about Haseul's ghosts is a step further than the vague politeness that marks all of their lunchtimes together. 

He can ask about something he already knows. That isn't off limits. 

"Your girlfriend is nice, isn't she?" 

"Of course! She's the best."

"You've been together for almost two years, right?" 

"That's right," Haseul says as she glances down at the pink post-it. "Two years in August. I haven't done it on purpose but it is nice to be able to go away during the school holidays. We're looking at last minute holidays for our anniversary this time."

"How did you find her?" Sangyeon asks. He definitely needs the advice. 

"We found each other. We were in the right place at the right time and we happened to click." She looks so content just being able to offer comfort like this even when she covers the post-it with her palm and reaches her other hand to cover Sangyeon’s. "You'll find your perfect match one day. I know you liked that guy from before but you will like the perfect person even better than that." 

"What guy?" Sangyeon asks. He hasn't dated anyone else seriously enough to talk about with Haseul and her infinite happiness, especially not when the catalyst for ever speaking to Haseul was Jaehyun. Haseul looks mildly uncomfortable but she answers. 

"Jaehyun. Have you already successfully wiped his memory from your mind? I thought his 'Call me Hyunjae because you have to enjoy me in the moment' thing would be much harder to forget." 

Sangyeon’s stomach feels too heavy, like it is ready to eject his current feelings all over the desk, and he doesn't understand a thing. 

"Sorry," Haseul says quickly. "I shouldn't bring that up. You'll find someone even more perfect than that."

Sangyeon tries to smile but he hasn't heard anyone mention Jaehyun in what feels like too long. Maybe he existed after all. 

+

As usual, home feels strange, like someone who doesn't belong has cloistered away to avoid being detected. Sangyeon looks around but there is nothing that could stand as irrefutable proof that Jaehyun has been here. But changing the locks doesn't seem like such a bad idea. 

Sangyeon makes himself dinner and searches on amazon for some new locks but there are no cheap and easy fixes. He supposes he needs to get a real locksmith involved but he isn't happy about it. 

"Jaehyun, can you stay out of my house until I can get the locks changed?" 

Nobody answers and Sangyeon sighs. 

+

"What's this?" Haseul asks at lunch the next day. She plucks a post-it out of Sangyeon’s lunch - generic and yellow, not the fancy pink ones like in her own lunch - and her eyebrows furrow. "Run?" 

"What?" 

Haseul flutters the post-it in Sangyeon’s direction. The post-it says ' _Run.'_ So that explains things ever so slightly. 

"This is very ominous," Haseul says. "Is this the word of your ghost? Maybe you need a kinder ghost."

"I hope it isn't from the ghost. I am not sure why I would need to run."

"What are you going to do?" Haseul asks. 

Sangyeon isn't sure. 

+

Sangyeon runs. 

Sangyeon runs and he returns home two weeks earlier. He runs and ends up at the point before he left. He runs again and he wakes up three mornings later. He has a peaceful day and runs to return back to where he should be. 

On Sangyeon’s runs he sees Jaehyun sometimes, the ghost too far for him to catch up, and of course he can't ever run fast enough. 

Jaehyun appears in flashes of Sangyeon’s day during work hours or whilst he is at home he is sure he has noticed some signs of Jaehyun’s presence. Sangyeon keeps running and he is just as exhausted as before, running into different time periods and living through days he might have already seen before. 

The problem is when Sangyeon jumps right into HTS. He is in the same room as before with the same strange box on the table. 

"What is this interview about? Did you find Jaehyun?" Sangyeon asks. A0707 exhales, terse. 

"This isn't an interview. We have apprehended you for your behaviour." 

A1108 approaches with the fan-like device from last time and is slower whilst panning the device over Sangyeon. After a few passes the device is stopped around Sangyeon’s neck. A1108 dips into Sangyeon’s collar and pulls out a necklace, just a silver chain threaded through a silver ring. A1108 unclasps the necklace and drops it onto the table. 

"Detainee Lee Sangyeon, what is the object Investigator A1108 has just retrieved from your person?"

"A necklace."

"What is the origin of this necklace?" 

"It was a present? I think." He should be more certain. "Jaehyun gave it to me."

The investigators are satisfied with that response, though not quite in the way that Sangyeon would like. 

A0707 says, "Detainee Lee Sangyeon, could you confirm whether you wear the gifted necklace when you run?" 

"I suppose I must do. I wear it all the time. It isn't even anything I think about."

"You won't need to think about it from now on," A1108 says. "The necklace is suspected to be a counterfeit time loop. We have been detecting interference and have reason to believe you are the source of the readings that have been recorded lately."

Sangyeon glances down at the necklace on the table. He has been running every chance he gets and zipping around different days within the month. He thought he might be able to catch up to his ghost, to Jaehyun who ran away and didn't stop, but that is all over now. He doesn't have any other way of finding Jaehyun. 

+

Sangyeon finds a message in his lunch. 

_'Chase me.'_

It is all very well that a ghost might sneak a note into his lunch but Sangyeon can't possibly follow the instruction on the note. On his way home from work he finds himself trudging a path he has been avoiding. He needn't have come this way. Going through the park is always a lot of hassle seeing as there are a lot of people all clamouring for the same space and the same limited fresh air. But there is a free bench exactly where he wants one to be. 

It is the bench where Sangyeon met Jaehyun, or at least he thinks it is. Sangyeon feels just as exhausted as he had that day but instead of being miserable and hungover he is miserable and lonely. He has done everything he could but he is still chasing a ghost of someone who must simply be playing with him at this point. 

Sangyeon withdraws the post-it from his pocket. 

Sangyeon has no idea how he is supposed to chase Jaehyun. He digs into his bag, sifts through the books he had brought with him to mark at home to find a pen, and writes his own reply on the post-it. 

_'I can't chase you. You're too far away.'_

It feels silly, carefully smoothing down the adhesive strip of the post-it and leaving the note behind on the bench. If anything, the wind would whisk Sangyeon’s words away, but even if the note stayed in place it is unlikely that Jaehyun would be the one to read it. 

Or so Sangyeon thought until lunchtime the next day. 

_"'Please try.'"_ Haseul frowns at the note and settles it on the desk beside her pink post-it with a doodle that must be her girlfriend kissing her on the cheek. "What do you need to try?" 

"The ghost wants me to chase it," Sangyeon tells her. Haseul frowns and traces her fingertips over the letters. 

"Do you want to try?" 

"I don't know how. I would like to just so we can put this whole thing behind us."

Haseul laughs. "What are you and the ghost going to do once you've put everything behind you?" 

"I don't know that either."

"What I find is that people who love you won't ask for the impossible. Ask the ghost what you need to do."

"What makes you think the ghost loves me?" Sangyeon asks.

Haseul taps her index finger to her chin and eventually shrugs. She uncaps a pen from the pot on the desk and draws a smiley face and a cute little ghost beside it. "This is why. Look how happy you are together." 

Sangyeon laughs. He won't refute Haseul's claim but he isn't totally sure. 

+

_'I don't have the time loop. How can I find you?'_

Sangyeon leaves the note on the bench where they met on a Friday. There aren't any packed lunches to sneak notes into over the weekend but Sangyeon apparently doesn't need to wait for Monday. On Saturday morning there is a post-it on the pillow beside Sangyeon’s head. 

_'Meet me where we first met.'_

That is exactly as vague as Sangyeon had imagined Jaehyun would be and the note is more irritating than anything. Sangyeon doesn't feel like they ever really met. All the same, Sangyeon goes on runs which divert through the park. Sometimes he stops by the bench and sits for a while but Jaehyun doesn't come. 

Each step away from the disappointment of not meeting is laden with exhaustion. Another week passes and Sangyeon finds it harder and harder to keep hoping that Jaehyun will turn up at all. For all he knows he missed the chance to see Jaehyun, missed whenever the scheduled time was. And Sangyeon feels stupid for hoping. 

+

Sangyeon isn't sure exactly what wakes him up. There is a tickle on his cheek, the light scratch of Jaehyun sleepy and unshaved lingering like he has just dropped a goodnight kiss. 

He gets out of bed and quickly brushes his teeth before dressing. He goes on a run in the middle of the night. 

And Jaehyun is waiting for him. 

Sitting on the bench with Jaehyun, the place where they met however long ago, is strange. The lampposts along the park path have blotted the stars out of the sky but the night still looks too deepdark. Not that the obsidian sky does anything to dull the expression on Jaehyun's face. 

"You don't know how long I have waited to meet you again."

Sangyeon huffs a laugh. "You're the one who left in the first place. Tracking you down was hard when you were always running away from me."

"Not because I wanted to," Jaehyun says quietly as he walks his fingers across the chipped planks of the bench between them. 

"Why did you come here in the first place?" Sangyeon asks. Jaehyun stills his hand and looks up at Sangyeon’s face, carefully blank. "From what I can gather you're running from those HTS people, but I want to know what you did and why you decided to drag me into it."

"We've met before," Jaehyun says, hushed in the silence of midnight. "You didn't remember me but you were this amazing person who I couldn't let go of. I lost you and I have been looking for you again ever since. And then I found you here. So what I did was spend a very long time tracking you down. I dragged you into this because I wanted to see you again."

Sangyeon wants to laugh this off or tell Jaehyun that he's crazy but more impossibilities are sprouting around him. As much as Sangyeon wants an answer that makes sense, something that doesn't sound like the result of a serious concussion, there is a lot that he could consider evidence. 

"What makes you think I would want to see you again?" Sangyeon asks. 

Jaehyun makes a sound, almost a laugh but he folds his hands together between his thighs. "That's a good question. I hadn't ever thought of that. I just wanted to see you again, however short that time might be."

"And how short was this?" Sangyeon asks quickly. "Because I thought you had been here for a year but the agents from HTS said they had closed down a moon cycle. So I couldn't have known you for more than a few weeks. Maybe not even for more than a few days."

"If it felt like a year that is because it was," Jaehyun says. "We were locked into this time but I could keep taking us back to the start, just so I had a few more days."

"Oh."

"What does that mean?" 

"I don't know," Sangyeon admits. "Why did you run away from me if you went to all this trouble to meet me again?" 

Jaehyun sighs and tips his head back as he stares into the sky. In the distance fireworks bloom though Sangyeon can't imagine what the reason is. It really does feel like he has known Jaehyun for a year but Sangyeon can't work out how. 

And then Jaehyun says, "I ran away from you then for the same reason I will have to do it now. They've found me."

Glancing around, Sangyeon can't see any sign of encroaching consequences. Looking back at the resignation on Jaehyun's face, Sangyeon doesn't need to ask too much. "You're going to get locked up, right? In space jail or something. Can I visit you?" 

Jaehyun laughs and grins at Sangyeon. "Space jail? Probably. If you want to see me then I suppose this was all worth it."

Sangyeon reaches for Jaehyun's hands, gasps as tightly as he can for however long he is allowed. The booming of fireworks sounds oddly like fractured beats of a heart. This can't be the end. "It wasn't worth it. I hardly remember the time we had. I spent so long chasing you and that's all I can think about." 

"Unfortunately that is how things work. When you run you forget things." Jaehyun's voice is gentle and Sangyeon watches the dying sparkles of fireworks which fall too soon reflected in his eyes. 

"But you didn't forget me."

Jaehyun nods. "You can forget me if you want."

"Why would I?" 

"I'm a man who has nothing, Sangyeon," Jaehyun says as he glances at a point behind Sangyeon’s back. Sangyeon looks over his shoulder at the cresting dawn but the rest of the sky is pitchdark and the fireworks are shooting into the sky from all around the outside of the park. Jaehyun squeezes Sangyeon’s hand, brings his attention back subtly. "But if you ever want another date you should just come and find me."

"How?" 

Jaehyun stands up and slips his hand free of Sangyeon’s grip. He doesn't look like a man accepting his fate as he smiles down at Sangyeon. 

"You can find me the way you did the first time we met."

Jaehyun runs. Sangyeon doesn't understand. This isn't fair. He doesn't remember how they first met because he wasn't even there. But Jaehyun knows that. Jaehyun knows that all Sangyeon can remember is the day they met on this bench. 

Even though Sangyeon doesn't have the necklace, the time loop Jaehyun gifted him at some point, the memory is all Sangyeon has. The fireworks crackle and boom and Sangyeon hates them for a reason unknown to him. But the wailing of backwards explosions in the sky pricks at his heels urgently. He can't wait around for HTS to catch up to Jaehyun. 

He runs. 

Sangyeon runs and for the first time he catches up to Jaehyun. 


End file.
